In the year 1933, James Hilton described
an eternally peaceful and quiet place
among mountains in the East---
"Shangri-La" in one of his novels for
the first time. In the novel "Lost
Horizon", an English diplomat Conway and
his brother Gorge scattered the English
citizens and helped them leave the
dangerous region. On their way home,
their plane was hijacked and fell down
into the mountain in the Tibetan region.
Some lucky survivors were taken to
Shangri-La where Conway found lots of
fantastic things in such a state founded
nearly 200 years ago, in which the local
people lived up to more than one hundred
years old and lived peacefully and
harmoniously with the other people,
animals and everything here. The place
was called "Shangri-La" by the local
folks.

James Hilton located "Shangri-La" in a
mysterious valley which was surrounded
by snowcapped mountains; near where
there were snow-clad peaks, blue lakes,
broad grassy marshlands, and lamaseries,
Buddhist nunneries, mosques, Catholic
Church , the human beings and the nature
were in perfect harmony, several
religions and varies of nationalities
exited at the same time; the temples
looked splendid in green and golden;
though people contacted the outer world
by caravan for a long time, many foreign
experts and scholars had come here to
investigate and remained much relics...

Obviously, that is not only a beautiful
scenery, but also a kind of artistic
conception.

With the novel and the film coming out,
Shangri-La became very famous in western
countries. Later, a Chinese named Guo
Huonian used the name of this place and
set up "Shangri-La" Hotel Group, which
has become one of the most successful
hotel group in the world.

At the same time, people didn’t give up
looking for the legendary Shangri-La. Up
to the end of this century, they finally
have found it.

After inspecting and proving on many
aspects, people found that Diqing
Prefecture, the only Tibetan region in
Yunnan, China, has striking similarity
with what’s described in the tale
regarding either on natural scenery or
people’s way of living. Therefore, the
name of "Shangri-La" spreads worldwide.